A month ago, former Ohio State University wrestler Mark Coleman told a national newspaper that his former assistant coach, now an Ohio congressman, must have known about sexual abuse allegations against a team doctor.

“There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,” Coleman told The Wall Street Journal about Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who was an assistant wrestling coach during the time the doctor is accused of abusing athletes. “I have nothing but respect for this man. I love this man. But he knew as far as I’m concerned.”

On Thursday, Coleman told CNN he wants to clarify his comment, and he stressed he has no direct knowledge that Jordan knew of any sexual abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, a doctor at Ohio State.

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“Maybe I spoke without thinking,” Coleman said Thursday. “This has absorbed my life. Since I’ve said that, it’s consumed me 24 hours a day, and I didn’t like the way it was heading, the direction it was heading.”

Coleman was a wrestler at Ohio State and then an assistant wrestling coach with Jordan in the 1990s.

Jordan denies knowing about any improper behavior while he was assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State between 1987 and 1995.

Coleman told CNN he no longer stands by his statement.

“I was angry and said words that I shouldn’t have said,” Coleman said. “He may have known about some locker room banter because we did joke about it in the locker room, but I don’t know of anyone ever reporting it to Jim Jordan directly.”

“I’m clarifying (the earlier statement) because it’s been on my mind for a long time and I feel guilty that this happened, and I wanted to clarify it,” he said. “Not change it. I said what I said.”